HC agrees to prepone hearing on BJP MLA's plea seeking CAG reports in assembly
New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Friday preponed the hearing on a plea filed by several BJP MLAs seeking a direction to place 12 CAG reports related to liquor duty, pollution, and finance before the assembly. The high court allowed an early hearing application filed by the petitioners and pre-poned the matter from December 9 to December 2.
"For the reasons stated in the application, the hearing is scheduled for Monday," Justice Sanjeev Narula said.
The application was filed in a pending petition by Leader of Opposition Vijender Gupta and Delhi BJP MLAs Mohan Singh Bisht, Om Prakash Sharma, Ajay Kumar Mahawar, Abhay Verma, Anil Kumar Bajpai and Jitendra Mahajan.
Advocate Anil Soni, appearing for the petitioners, submitted that there was urgency in the matter as the Winter Session of the Delhi Legislative Assembly has commenced today and will continue till December 3.
The counsel urged the court to pre-pone the date of the hearing in the matter. He said the respondents have not yet filed their replies to the petition.
The Delhi government's counsel, however, contended that there was no urgency in the matter.
The high court had on October 29 issued notice to the Delhi government, the office of the Legislative Assembly Speaker, the lieutenant governor (LG), the comptroller and auditor general of India (CAG), and the accountant general (audit), Delhi and sought their responses to the petition.
The plea claimed that the CAG reports from 2017-2018 to 2021-2022 were pending with Delhi Chief Minister Atishi, who also holds the finance portfolio.
The plea further alleged that despite the LG's repeated requests, these reports have not been sent to him for tabling the same before the assembly.
The petition, filed by advocates Neeraj and Satya Ranjan Swain, said the BJP MLAs had approached the chief minister, the chief secretary, and the speaker in the past but no action has been taken yet.
"Despite the LG's repeated requests and constitutional obligation, these reports were not sent to the LG and consequently, could not be tabled in the Delhi legislative assembly," it said.
The plea further alleged a "deliberate suppression of vital information" not only violated the democratic principles but also prevented proper scrutiny of the government's actions and expenditures, raising serious questions about the government's financial proprietary, transparency, and accountability.
The petitioners, therefore, sought directions to the finance department to send a proposal to the LG for "exercising his duties under Article 151(2) of the Constitution of India, 1950, Regulation 210(1) of the Regulations on Audit and Accounts, 2007 and Section 48 of the Government of National Capital Territory Act, 1991."